One of my friends is in an electronic/grindcore band (Genghis Tron http://www.myspace.com/genghistron), and was talking about how sometimes he thinks his EP sounds a bit too digital/overprocessed. That's sorta inevitable with 2/3 of his band using synths and computer programmed beats.

However, he really likes the production that Trent Reznor gets for his stuff, and was wondering how he got the natural-ness to his recordings. One of his other band members was convinced that NIN uses just a track of room ambience layered over the entire thing to get that sound...and when NIN released a GarageBand version of "The Hand That Feeds," there was indeed a track of just ambience. (I don't have GarageBand, that's just what I heard)

Is this the key to getting that sound?

Thanks,

Rohan